Dean Christakos« February 2006 | Main | July 2008 »
March 30, 2006
Changes in Thessaloniki
When I first came to Thessaloniki in 1998, one of the things I was really impressed with was how there were Roman ruins being excavated right in the middle of the city, and one could sit on a bench and eat one's lunch while overlooking the Roman ruins.
Well, 8 years later, not only can you look at these Roman ruins, the excavation areas are now open to the public -- for free! Yes, I can now walk within the Roman agora, the palace of Galerius, and the Octagon.
Here is a picture taken right from the main square of the Roman agora with the amphitheatre in the background:
On the right, with the arches, is a covered pathway into the Roman agora. On the far left is a pedestrian street, and in between is the remains of commercial shops, which were in use until the 14th century or so:
This is part of the palace complex of Galrius, which I could stand right in!
Posted by Dean at 4:55 AM | Comments (1)
March 29, 2006
Too Good to Pass Up
Not travel-related at all...
Chevrolet has a contest for fans of the Chevy Tahoe to submit their own original commercials. Apparently Chevrolet has not screened its entries for content.
Posted by Dean at 2:31 PM | Comments (1)
Solar Eclipse in Europe
Today there was a solar eclipse which was visible from my current location in Thessaloniki. Only a partial eclipse was visible, so the area did not significantly darken.
I met a couple of nuns who dropped by Thessaloniki's local mountaintop monastery to watch the eclipse:
Posted by Dean at 8:06 AM | Comments (3)
March 28, 2006
I love Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki is probably my favorite city in Greece, in part because it has a lot more personality than, say, Athens, owing to it's continued existence as a major cities all the way from classical times through the medieval era to the modern day, unlike modern Athens and Sparta.
What's also interesting is how the city grew up around the historical sites. The churches, some of which have been around for more than 1600 years, remained in their same places while the "ground level" of the rest of the city rose around them, as we can see here at the Church of the Holy Transfiguration:
Here, I'm standing at the ground level of the church watching pedestrians walk by on the ground level of the modern city:
Posted by Dean at 10:16 AM | Comments (1)
March 27, 2006
A Sign that I Shouldn't Be Such a Cheapskate
I love my Lonely Planet: Greece travel guide. It's certainly served me well, and I've certainly gotten my money's worth from it, using the book when I traveled to Greece in 1999, 2001, 2003, and now this year, 2006. It's stuffed with brochures, tickets to various sights, and receipts from my travels. However, I think I should have bought a new copy. Thessaloniki has changed dramatically since I was last here in 1999. The new travel hub is no longer near downtown (though the new Via Egnatia has cut down travel time from Ioannina from 6-7 hours to 4 3/4 hours), the tourist office is in a completely different place, and various stores have moved or closed. Clearly I should have just spent an extra $20 on a new guidebook rather than using one that's 8 years old.
Posted by Dean at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2006
Happy Greek Independence Day!
Today is Greek Independence Day, and it's the first time I've been in Greece during the holiday. There has been a long celebration in the center of Metsovo with much music and dancing:
There are a bunch of people around in their traditional costumes as well as many tourists from other parts of Greece who figured that Metsovo would be a great place to spend the holiday weekend.
Continue reading "Happy Greek Independence Day!"
Posted by Dean at 10:46 AM | Comments (1)
My Journey So Far
As of March 24, 2006, this is a map of my travels, with my current location in the mountains of northern Greece:
Metsovo is a town of about 3,000 people who figured that working in tourism was preferable to working as shepherds. This region is populated by the descendents of the Romans who guarded the Via Egnatia, portions of which ran through what is now northern Greece, and is the road you would pick up after crossing the Adriatic after the end of the Via Appia. I'm going to continue eastwards on my way to Istanbul via the modern incarnation of the Via Egnatia.
Posted by Dean at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2006
In the mountains
There's nothing quite like being dropped off my a bus on the side of a road, in the middle of the mountains, half a mile from your destination. I'm in Metsovo right now, taking a rest after my ferry ride from Brindisi to Greece.
What do I find after arriving in the Balkans? That The Onion has this hilarious news article up "Franz Ferdinand Frontman Shot By Gavrilo Princip Bassist".
Posted by Dean at 9:59 AM | Comments (1)
March 23, 2006
The End of the Line
These columns in Brindisi mark the end of the Via Appia, leading from Rome and marking the spot at which one departs for Greece by sea.
I feel like I've spent too little time here in Italy, but I saw what I wanted to see during this trip, and I want to leave more than enough time to give a proper visit to Turkey and Greece.
Posted by Dean at 9:17 AM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2006
Talking with people in Grecia Salentina
Translated from very broken, amateurish Italian (on my part) with an old man named Antonio in a town called Castrignano de' Greci:
Me: How many people are there here?
Antonio: About 4,300.
Me: How many people understand Griko?
Antonio: All of them.
Me: All of them?
Antonio: Of course, all of them. This is Castrignano de' Greci
Hard to argue with that reasoning there. :) What I have learned while traveling around Grecia Salentina:
My Greek is creaky enough that trying to switch between Greek and Italian is a bit difficult.
Given my creaky Greek, trying to understand the vowel-sound differences in Griko and still understand what they're saying to you is even more difficult.
A lot of these men in these towns worked in Switzerland in their younger years and learned to speak modern Greek by speaking with the migrant workers in Switzerland who were from Greece.
In all seriousness, though, this trek to Grecia Salentina has been pretty interesting. It seems that it's quite a living language, but I hardly ever heard it spoken in the streets-- it was more common for me to hear old men speaking amongst themselves in the local Leccese dialect of Italian. Only in Corlignano d'Ortanto did I hear a couple men speaking Griko to each other.
Also, since it's the off-season, many of the information booths and such things that would provide more information to tourists such as myself were closed.
In Martignano, the people were the most friendly, and I spoke Greek for a while with a few old men who told me about the town and the local people. Martano was the most tourist-friendly and most commercially active and, it would seem, the center for the "Grecia Salentia" tourism.
Posted by Dean at 5:40 PM | Comments (1)
Your Papers Please!
One is asked this in Italy (Prego, sua documenti), every time you want to use the internet at a public café. Through the wonder of Berlosconi-era "anti-terrorism" laws, every internet access point needs to ask for an record your ID. As a consequence, hostels that used to have public terminals in their lounge areas have shut them down, and at every internet café you can see a stack of photocopied ID cards of previous customers.
Though I'm sure that some helpful government official will point out that "57% of all Italians want the government to monitor al-Qaeda's internet access!"
I feel so much safer now.
Posted by Dean at 5:03 AM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2006
Deep into southern Italy: Lecce
I am now staying in Lecce, home of crazed mix-and-match baroque architecture, such as here at the Church of the Holy Cross:
I'm using Lecce as a base in which to explore the "Grecia Salentina" region where there are still Greek speakers in southern Italy left over from the classical "Magna Greca" and medieval Byzantine eras. The region as made sure to find a way to make a tourist industry out of their linguo-ethno minorities, as one can see with this store sign in Martano, displaying the logo of the Grecia Salentina tourism office:
Though, I suppose, good for them, if it helps preserve the community.
Posted by Dean at 6:00 AM | Comments (2)
March 19, 2006
Finally in Southern Italy
I have made it to Brindisi, from where I will rent a car and head to the mountains of the Salentine peninsula.
Ok, it took me an entire week to get down to southern Italy. How lame am I? On March 18th, I arrived in Bari for the purpose of visiting the tomb of St. Nicholas, whose relics were stolen from the Greeks of Myra in 1087 AD. It just so happens, however, that March 18th was the day in which Elie de St. Clement was beatified in Bari at the Cathedral of Bari:
Sunday, however, I got a chance to visit both the church of San Nicola, where St. Nicholas is buried, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas (pictures after the jump).
Continue reading "Finally in Southern Italy"
Posted by Dean at 2:23 PM | Comments (3)
A Final Few Bits of Rome
I stayed another day in Rome and enjoyed some coffee at Piazza de Navona:
and I made a pilgrimage to the catacombs of St. Callisto. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures within the catacombs, but here is a picture of the Rome's gate of St. Sebastian, which I took from the Via Appia Antica, leading to the catacombs:
Posted by Dean at 2:10 PM | Comments (2)
March 16, 2006
Dean Arrives in Rome
I arrived in Rome this afternoon, where I have decided to stay for a couple of days on my way down to Apulia. Of course, the first thing I had to see was....
the Arch of Constantine!
This is right next to the Roman Colosseum:
Tomorrow I will do some more travelling around Rome, and then Saturday morning, I plan to head to Bari.
You know, there's something about arriving at the Roman Colosseum that overwhelms you with the realization of "Wow, I'm in the capital of the Roman Empire!" Seeing Rome isn't the main point of this vacation, or even my visit to Italy, but being here is really stunning.
All my photos, as always, available at my flickr archive.
Posted by Dean at 12:19 PM | Comments (1)
March 15, 2006
Day trip in Nice
Seeing as how Genoa is not exactly the best place for rest and relaxation, I took a quick train ride to Nice for the day and hung out on the French Riviera. The rough life of a vacationing former grad student....
Interestingly, Nice was a resort area for Russians in the 19th century, and after the Russian revolution became the home to thousands of Russian exiles, among them the artist Marc Chagall.
The Russians have a large cathedral on the outskirts of the city, near the train station:
In a typically fairy-tale style, I had coffee outside the Palais de Justice while a piano player provided music outside...
Posted by Dean at 4:38 PM | Comments (0)
A few days in Genoa
So, I've been spending a few days in Genoa resting before heading down to Rome and then to the deep south of Italy. Genoa is the hometown of Christopher Columbus who, of course, gets his own statue in Piazza Principe, which you see right when you step out of the train station:
There are also many beautiful buildings in the old city, but for the most part, the city is mediocre. I recommend choosing another place to rest and relax, if that's your plan for a few days.
My next stop: Rome, a pit stop on my day to Italy's extreme south.
Posted by Dean at 4:32 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
The Greek Church of Cargese
The Greek church in Cargese is an interesting mix of Latin and Byzantine elements. The Greek community of Cargese, which is about 300 people or so, worships here when the priest holds liturgy, which does not occur that often, as the priest is old. One of the largest holidays for the Cargese Greeks is the feast of St. Spyridon on December 12th.
The church interior is typically Byzantine, though the iconostasis has some very westernized iconography:
Some of the frescoes in the back of the church tell an interesting story...
Continue reading "The Greek Church of Cargese"
Posted by Dean at 10:32 AM | Comments (5)
Overview of Cargese, Corsica
Well, I've finally found an internet café in Genoa which will let me upload pictures to flickr, though it has much less bandwidth that the one at the Virgin Megastore, which was blocking my flickr access.
However, my pictures from Cargese are up, and I'm going to split up my impressions of Cargese over a few blog posts.
Cargese is a mountain town north of the Corsican capital of Ajaccio. I should note that Ajaccio's claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Napolean, and the proximity of Napolean's birthplace to the town of Cargese tempted some to claim that Napolean had Greek origins.
However, Corsica is a sleepy little town which is extremely quiet in the off-season. One can see some indications of the town's Greek heritage on some street names, such as "Greece Street"
"Vitylos [Itylos] Street",
and the Itylon Boulangerie:
The priest is quite old and does not serve Mass on Sundays, anymore. My suggestion for those interested in meeting more of the Greek community in Cargese would be to go to the town's major festival, which is the feast day of St. Spyridon on December 12th.
Posted by Dean at 9:53 AM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2006
In Genoa
Well, I have made a rest stop in Genoa on my way down to southern Italy. Unfortunately, flickr is giving me troubles, so I can't upload as many photos as I'd like right now. Will update as soon as I can.
Posted by Dean at 2:02 PM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2006
Back in Touch
Well, big surprise, it is not easy to get internet access in the mountains of Corsica in the wintertime. I have just arrived in Bastia, Corsica, after a long busride through the mountains, during which it began to snow.
It's a bit challenging for me to post a lot of pictures, at the moment, but here are a couple from Cargese...
This was taken on the road between Ajaccio and Cargese:
Continue reading "Back in Touch"
Posted by Dean at 3:55 PM | Comments (0)
March 8, 2006
Destination: Corsica
Ok, I'm in the Mediterranean, where I belong. It's warmer, here. I arrived in Corsica this afternoon after a one-day layover in Paris, where I stayed at the 3 Ducks Hostel.
Why Corsica? Well, I'm actually here to visit Cargese, a city which became home to Greeks from Itylo, Lakonia who immigrated to Corsica in 1676, fleeing from the Turks. There's still an identifiable, though mostly assimilated, Greek community in Cargese to this day who still attend a Greek (Eastern-Rite) Catholic Church.
When the Greeks were exiled down to Ajaccio for a while, they attended the Chapelle des Grecs, which can be seen here under renovation:
Pictures of Corsica will be regularly updated.
Big shout-out to Le Bistrot du Cours here in Ajaccio for keeping me in touch with the rest of the world.
Posted by Dean at 2:57 PM | Comments (0)
March 7, 2006
Sampling the Dutch Beer
Coming to Amsterdam also gave me a chance to sample the local beer. I made a stop at Café Gollem, located at Raamsteeg 4 near the Spui, home to 200 different kinds of beer:
After sampling the La Chouffe, Kwak, Judas, and Natte, all on tap, I can now proudly claim to have made my way through 2% of the selection. After 50 more visits, I should have it all covered.
Across the street from Café Gollem is a beer-seller with an enormous selection, pictured here:
They take their beer seriously in Amsterdam.
Posted by Dean at 3:10 AM | Comments (0)
March 6, 2006
Religion in the Netherlands
The Netherlands has an interesting religious history, being majority Dutch Reformed/Calvinist, but with a significant Catholic population. In the Begijnhof courtyard, one can see them side-by-side. Begijnhof was the site of a religous community of Catholic women called the Beguines. When the Netherlands sided with the Reformation, a number of churches and monasteries were appropriated by the government, but the homes of the Beguines at Begijnhof remained in the hands of the Beguines because their titles were the property of the residents. However, the Catholic church in the middle of the courtyard was taken over by the government and handed over to the English-speaking Presbyterians:
The Catholics were allowed to practice as long as they didn't have any public displays of their faith, so their church got moved into a house across from the church that was taken from them with the stipulation that there be no visible indication that it was a church:
Now, of course, Amsterdam being a port city, you get plenty of immigrants, including Russians who have a Russian Orthodox Church on 48 Lijnbaansgracht:
The courtyard in the main entrance makes it look rather small and modest:
Around the corner, however, the church looks like a well-protected fortress:
Clearly, I'm sure the Russians fortified this whole area in order to protect themselves in case of another outbreak of rampaging Dutch Calvinists. :)
Posted by Dean at 4:06 PM | Comments (0)
Dutch Terminology Explained
There are various places in Amsterdam where you can get various refreshments. They all have similar names, but they are all quite different.
These are cafés. They serve beer and sometimes food.
This is a coffeehouse (koffiehuis). It serves coffee and sandwiches.
This is a coffeeshop. I don't know if they serve coffee, but the truth is that coffee is really not the point of such a place.
Posted by Dean at 2:47 PM | Comments (0)
I swear that "Grammar" deserves its own category on this blog
It happens that on this vacation I am reading the book Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero-Tolerance Approach to Puncatuation Punctuation, which covers proper use of punctuation and makes note of public laxity on this issue. Spending time reading this while on my vacation to Amsterdam has also no doubt convinced my cousin's fiancé, with whom I am staying, that I am quite insane.
The author of the book, Lynne Truss, will be no doubt upset by the fact that not even the Dutch are immune modern offenses to proper syntax. At Voorburgwal 383, near Spui Square, we are confronted with this:
This, my friends, is a major violation. I refer readers to the Quick Guide to the Apostrophe.
Update: The store is in the process of moving to Spui 12, around the corner. Along with a commenter, I, too, at least for a moment entertained the possibility that the piano store may be owned by a Mr. or Mrs. Piano (hey, it could happen). However, if you go to the website of the store, right there on the website, in big letters, they're advertising "Piano's." Really!
Also, in defense of the store, archaic English usages specify the use of an apostrophe to pluralize a word that ends with a vowel, such as "piano's" or "banana's." After consulting with my cousin's Dutch fiancé, I was told by him that it is not unknown in Dutch to use an apostrophe to pluralize some words ending in vowels, particularly foreign words, but not others.
(don't worry, I will actually blog about some other aspects of Amsterdam in a moment)
Posted by Dean at 5:08 AM | Comments (3)
March 5, 2006
Amsterdam, Day 3
So this is my third day in Amsterdam, and I decided to visit the Van Gogh Museum, as all people, no matter how hip they think they are, should do when visiting Amsterdam. In fact, Amsterdam has a whole park dedicated to a number of its museums:
Sure enough, wondrous city that Amsterdam is, outside the Van Gogh Museum was a woman playing the cello in the open air:
I also visited one of Amsterdam's distinctly less culturally important museums-- The Torture Museum:
The sign makes the place look so happy and exciting! Honestly, the place was somewhat lame, having thrown together a bunch of medieval torture instruments, copies of medieval drawings depicting how they were used-- some completely out of context, with little explanation-- and very brief writeups of only a portion of their collection. I suppose there was a reason why my guidebook didn't even make mention of this 3rd-rate museum.
Posted by Dean at 6:07 PM | Comments (0)
March 3, 2006
I'm in Amsterdam
I have arrived in Amsterdam today, after a 3-and-a-half hour flight delay trying to leave JFK. A train from the Amsterdam airport goes straight to downtown, where I arrived early this afternoon:
I'm staying in a neighborhood right near Amsterdam's Vondelpark:
Ongoing photos of Amsterdam (and other places on my travels) are available on my flickr page.
Posted by Dean at 1:43 PM | Comments (3)
March 2, 2006
Someone you probably didn't know, but should have
A promising and successful researcher in Artificial Intelligence, Pushpinder Singh, passed away on Tuesday. We lived in the same dorm as undergraduates at MIT and both worked at the MIT Media Laboratory in graduate school, but that in no way implies that I was anywhere in his intellectual or professional league. His mentor was AI giant Marvin Minsky, whose research niche Push was poised to take over as Minsky retired.
To say that Push was brilliant was to understate the situation. I think it was a testimony to his intelligence that he could accept the challenge of developing machines that think like people-- a task that many other students of Computer Science, such as myself, considered too intractable to even bother with. Push, on the other hand, was willing to write the AI application that required 1 million lines of code in order to create systems with rudimentary, but functional reasoning skills and create the massive cooperative project to build a "common sense database" in the hopes that computers would be able to make the inferences that the rest of us don't even give a second thought to.
I don't know what happens to personal websites when the owner dies, but the Internet Archive will no doubt preserve Push's page.
I don't know what else to say. In college, you assume that everyone you know there will be around forever. Particularly for those of us who stayed in (or returned to) the Boston area after graduating, the idea that the cohort of those who were always around would, at some point, no longer be around was difficult to envision-- Push was slated to join the MIT faculty in 2007, ensuring his place as a permanent fixture of the community.
Posted by Dean at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
March 1, 2006
Time for a Tune-Up
In southwestern Connecticut, my car's odometer hit a milestone:
My car is still going strong, despite previous trials and tribulations.
Posted by Dean at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)